Empire Plan part of data breach

109,000 members possible targets in region

Updated 7:03 am, Friday, February 6, 2015

Photo: Aaron P. Bernstein

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INDIANAPOLIS, IN - FEBRUARY 5: An exterior view of the Anthem Health Insurance headquarters on February 5, 2015 in Indianapolis, Indiana. About 80 million company records were accessed in what may be among the largest healthcare data breaches to date. (Photo by Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images) ORG XMIT: 536046955 less

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - FEBRUARY 5: An exterior view of the Anthem Health Insurance headquarters on February 5, 2015 in Indianapolis, Indiana. About 80 million company records were accessed in what may be among the ... more

They're part of a larger breach of Anthem, which has 37.5 million members in Blue Cross Blue Shield plans nationwide, including Empire Blue Cross. Anthem first announced late Wednesday that its database storing information on more than 80 million people — including current and previous members, as well as employees — had been breached.

"Based on what we know now, there is no evidence that credit card or medical information, such as claims, test results or diagnostic codes were targeted or compromised," said Joseph R. Swedish, Anthem's president and CEO.

Empire has about 109,000 members in the Capital Region, said Sally Kweskin, an Empire spokeswoman. Nationwide, Anthem, formerly Wellpoint, has 37.5 million members.

Empire will notify current and former members by mail within the next two weeks whether their information was breached. The insurer said it will provide free credit monitoring and identity protection services.

The company said it also had retained Mandiant, a cybersecurity firm, to evaluate its systems following the attack, which was discovered Jan. 29.

"As soon as we learned about the attack, we immediately made every effort to close the security vulnerability, contacted the FBI and began fully cooperating with the investigation," a statement from Empire said.

Empire and Anthem have set up a website with information and answers to frequently asked questions at http://www.anthemfacts.com, as well as a toll-free phone number, 877-263-7995, for current and former members who have questions.

Empire is one of two licensees of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association to offer coverage in the Capital Region.

Blue Shield of Northeastern New York, a unit of HealthNow New York, is a separate entity from Anthem that also offers coverage in the Capital Region, a spokeswoman said.

Blue Shield of Northeastern New York members likely wouldn't have been affected by the data breach unless they had received services in markets where Anthem was the only Blue Cross Blue Shield provider.

"If one of our Blue Shield members went to Georgia, had a medical situation, and was treated, it's possible their claim was processed through Anthem, the exclusive Blue Cross Blue Shield provider in that market," said Julie Snyder, director of corporate relations for Blue Shield of New York.

Anthem, when it was still known as Wellpoint, in 2013 was fined $1.7 million by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services when it left protected health information on 612,000 people accessible on the Internet.